A power MOSFET is a specific type of metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor designed to handle significant power levels (e.g., typically involving switching of more than 1 A). Power MOSFETs are well known for superior switching speed, and are used in many applications such as power supplies, DC-to-DC converters, low-voltage motor controllers, as well as switches in other high-frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) applications, and the like.
Efficiency and power loss in microelectronic devices including power MOSFETs present some trade-offs in power electronics applications. Engineers are continually challenged to increase power density and at the same time reduce the amount of power dissipated in the applications. The reduced power dissipation helps keep the device temperatures under certain specifications, which has given rise to a constant demand for better operational efficiencies in power MOSFET applications. For example, traditional approaches to improve efficiency in DC/DC synchronous buck converters include reducing conduction losses in the MOSFETs through designing lower on-state resistance (RDSON) devices and lowering switching losses through reducing device capacitances. However, current technologies to achieve incremental improvements in RDSON are at a point of diminishing returns because of the trade-off required between the device's breakdown voltage and its on-state resistance. This is because the breakdown voltage of the device directly impacts the resistive contribution.
As the advances in the design of integrated circuits and semiconductor fabrication continue to take place, improvements in semiconductor devices, including power MOSFETs, are also being concomitantly pursued.